Sea Legs
by Not a day will go by
Summary: Mermaid AU. Captain Hook, while on his quest for revenge on the Dark One, happens upon a beautiful young woman...except she's not completely human anymore. He and his crew attempt to get her back to her home, but that won't change the fact that she is cursed, and how could a pirate possibly help to break a curse?
1. Chapter 1

**AN: Hello lovelies :D This will be fairly short, probably about 6 chapters. If any of you are reading Tangled Destines, I know that it's been a while since I've updated, but I promise I'm still working on it. This one is just going first bc the amazing and perfect Annie at coolandwittyurl (check out her tumblr because she's awesome) is drawing fanart for it! She'll probably be publishing that tomorrow, so make sure to watch out for it. Anyways, tell me what you think of this chapter because reviews make my heart jump for joy. The next one will come out some time in the next few days.**

Killian Jones was awoken, as usual, to the sounds of a fight breaking out on the deck of his beloved ship.

"Bloody pirates," he muttered, thinking half-longingly of how peaceful the crew had been and how much better they had smelled when they had been honest sailors. He rubbed some sleep from his eye, got dressed in his usual leather ensemble, and finished by clicking his metal hook into place.

He climbed up the stair to see just what he expected. His whole crew was huddled around two men, egging them on in whatever skirmish they had started this morning. _Probably Starkey and Noodler again,_ he thought mildly, while also questioning who could possibly be cruel enough to give their child that name. "Alright you scurvy rats, back to work!" He shouted over all the commotion. To make his point, he turned dramatically from his place on the deck to take the wheel.

Surveying their location, he truly had to consider what their destination would be. He knew of a weapon that would help him kill the Dark One, but he didn't have any leads on where to find it, which made it difficult to choose a target location. They were currently anchored fairly close to the shore of a thick forest. They had not seen any people around the area as far as they could see in any direction.

"Where to, Captain?" Smee, his first mate, asked, coming over to him after scolding Starkey and Noodler about their behavior.

"Where's the closest sizable harbor?" Hook questioned.

Smee glanced over at a map and traced a short line with one, pudgy finger. "Probably about...an hours journey east," he responded, gesturing down the coast. "But if we stay close to land it'll be a bit longer."

"Fine," he said shortly, nodded at Smee to take the wheel, and paced absentmindedly toward the bow of his ship.

Normally he wouldn't be this passive toward his first mate and his crew in general, but they had woken him at a very bad he past 300 years, he had become very accustomed to his nightmares about chasing after Milah and being forced to watch her die all over again as soon as he caught up with her. It no longer alarmed him to wake up in a sweat, heart racing out of control. This time, however, it had been different. He had been sure that if they had woken him just a moment later, maybe he would've been able to catch her. Maybe he would've...

Shaking his head a bit to wake himself up from his Milah-induced trance, he focused his eyes on some of the gigantic boulders that were scattered along the shoreline. There was a big red spot on one of them and he was trying to make out what it was, until he realized that the red spot was attached to a body. A human body.

Hook pulled his spyglass quickly out of his jacket and located the red spot again. Wait no, he had been wrong. It was only partly human.

A mermaid was sunbathing on the rock that he had found. She was facing down, but he could tell that she had a long, gray tail that slowly became black toward the tail. Her top was half red, and was what has attracted his gaze to begin with. It did not fully cover her midriff but was still more modest than what her kind normally wore over their chests. One side was blood red with a sleeve that came down to her forearm. The other side was black with a purple strap going over her shoulder. Long, golden hair fell in loose waves all around her.

As if she could feel his gaze on the back of her neck, she looked up right as he began to lower the spyglass, and the mermaid and pirate's eyes suddenly met.

_Nope,_ he thought, _wrong again. Not a mermaid. A bloody siren._ Her face was exquisitely beautiful, but he could her eyes in particular were practically burning into his brain as he stood. They were shockingly green in a way that couldn't help but remind him of the ocean. Sharp and analytical, he could feel them x-raying him and his ship. Her completely unimpressed expression surprised him though. When they had happened upon sirens in the past, they had began trying to seduce the sailors in the blink of an eye. He had never seen one that tried playing hard-to-get before.

That was the first thing that struck him as odd. The next was when he lifted the spyglass once again, he saw her look directly at him, smile in a sarcastic way that was practically screaming, 'fuck you". And as if that wasn't enough, she decided to phrase it in an even more obvious way by lifting one slender middle finger in his direction.

Lowering the spyglass, he couldn't help but laugh. Something was strange about this creature, and what kind of pirate would he be if he didn't pursue every mystery and adventure that came his way. Fully knowing that this could be part of her trap, he shouted over to his first mate. "Smee, change course!" Hook pointed at the creature's rock.

"Captain, isn't that a siren?"

As they approached her, Hook saw that for the first time, her face seemed to truly be showing honest emotion. It could only be described as unbelievable shock.

Once they were closer, he shouted out to her. "You know lass, I don't think anyone has every been brave enough to give me such an obscene gesture."

She looked at him, unimpressed. Clearly she had masked her surprise quickly. "First time for everything, I suppose."

He smiled at her response and decided to jump straight to the point. "Hope you aren't offended by my asking, but being a sailor and all it is a bit of a concern: are you a siren or a mermaid?"

"Siren, obviously." She laughed breathily, and sat up slightly on her rock, giving him a seductive smirk. "And now that I've gotten you this close, my sisters have already begun tearing apart your ship. You'll be dead in a matter of minutes."

Hook and his whole crew drew their swords at lightning speed as if to defend themselves, only to see the creature laughing at them from her spot on the rock. He couldn't help but notice how beautiful she looked when her nose was scrunched up like that.

"Damn, you're easy," she drawled. "But, technically I'm a mermaid."

"Technically?" He raised an eyebrow to her as well, but not in a particularly threatening way. He sheathed his sword again and leaned over the railing so he could be more in her view.

"I wasn't always."

"Care to expand on that?"

"Nope," she smiled, popping her lips on the 'p'.

_So she wants to play it that way?_ He thought. _With a pirate? Bit of a mistake there, lass._ "Huh. I might be losing interest," he sighed and theatrically started to turn away, until-

"Wait!" She called. He smiled and turned back. She grimaced, seeming to be disassembling her self-respect brick by brick in her mind. "I wonder if you could do me a favor."

"A favor? I'm not really in the business of doing things out of the goodness of my heart."

She hesitated and then said, "my family could give you money if you brought me back to them. A _lot_ of money."

He hesitated, but decided that some money for him and his crew was worth a bit of a risk. "Well then, in that case," he smiled, "welcome aboard the Jolly Roger."


	2. Chapter 2

**AN: Here's chapter two! Nothing much to say, but you should expect these chapters to come pretty quickly. Also, make sure to follow coolandwittyurl on tumblr, because she's drawing fanart for this, and she's already posted one of her rough drafts, and it's absolutely amazing! Anyways, enjoy, and please please please leave reviews!**

Not one to sit back and wait, Hook quickly jumped in the lifeboat and waited as his crew lowered it down to the water. The mermaid awkwardly flopped in and situated herself so that she was mostly sitting in the boat. Some of her tail still swayed leisurely in the water.

"Head towards our previous destination, Mr. Smee!" Hook shouted up, and saw the man with the red hat give a nod of understanding from his place on deck. Normally he would be steering the ship and leave someone else to speak with the mermaid, but he was just too curious to not get to know her story a bit for himself.

They were being pulled steadily in the lifeboat, trailing behind the Jolly Roger, and she was looking pointedly away from him. Pretending to not notice her apparent distaste for him, he decided to break the ice. "Well then, let's start out with some basics. What's your name?" He prompted.

She hesitated, just like she had when she told him that her family could pay them. What was bothering her so much? "Emma," she finally said shortly.

"Beautiful name, lass," he winked and she simply snorted.

"And judging by reputation and lack of a hand, I'm assuming you're Captain Hook?" She asked, though she said it more like a statement.

He gave a little mock-bow. "At your service." She snorted again.

"Just my luck. I've been waiting for months for somebody to sail by without screaming at me about being an unholy siren of hell, and when someone finally finds me, they're fucking pirates."

He acted hurt and pressed his good hand to his chest. "Emma, you insult me! I am, above all else, a man of honor." When she say anything but just eyed him sceptically with a slight smile threatening to cross her lips, he changed the subject back. "So then you've been hanging around this area for months?"

"Yep."

"Might I be so bold as to ask how such a gorgeous woman got herself turned into a mermaid."

"Nope." She smiled, but upon seeing the expression on his face, she decided to change her answer. Hook didn't give off the aura of someone who would hurt her (and the fact that she felt so confident in that assessment almost worried her), but she didn't want to test the theory. Hesitating, she said, "I was cursed."

"By who?"

"A person."

"Well that's a shock," he said sarcastically.

"Why does any of this matter? You're going to help me get back to my parents, they'll pay you, and then you'll be on your merry way." She emphasized her point by gesturing out into the ocean with a flick of her wrist.

"Fine, if that's all you'll tell me. But then you at least need to say who your parents are."

"I do not need to do anything of the sort."

"How am I supposed to trust that you aren't lying about them paying us and we'll get you back to your home just to find that you're impoverished and having nothing to pay us with?" He leaned in closer to her, noticing how she didn't back off at all. "Although, I could think of a few ways you could repay the favor." He licked his lips ever so slightly. He could've sworn he saw her eyelids flutter for the briefest moment, but then she just snorted once more.

"I'm only half human and you're still coming on to me?" She marveled. "I don't know if your reputation even gives you enough credit." Emma choose to test her theory of him not truly planning on hurting her, or making any moves on his most recent obscene implication. She stared at him intensely for a moment and then added on with a condescending tone, "but you're all bark and no bite, aren't you?"

"Now what could possibly make you think that?" He laughed as though her words weren't true.

"Let's just say I'm pretty good at knowing when people are lying to me. Call it a superpower."

As much as he felt the urge to get to understand what she meant by that, he tried to bring the conversation back. "Changing the subject won't work on me," he said in a singsong voice.

"Won't it though?" She smirked, leaning toward him as well. Their noses were almost touching and they could each feel the other's breath.

"No," he replied steadily, trying to ignore how her proximity, searing eyes, and lack of a complete shirt affected him, as he brought his hook up to her neck. Before she had the chance to move, she could feel the metal pressing into her skin. "It won't."

She huffed, but did not move her head. From the way her eyes kept glancing down as if trying to roll into her head and see his hook, he could tell that she wasn't nearly as unperturbed by the metal appendage as she let on. "Fine then, if you want to make it like that," she sighed. "My parents are fairly high ranking...officials in the royal court." she tried to say it casually, but she said it a bit too quickly, and held her breath after she had gotten it out.

"Bloody hell lass, I don't need a superpower to see that lie." He smiled a little. "You're horrible at this, I hope you know."

"Yeah, I do," she said, letting the air out. She slowly moved herself away from his hook and considered him carefully. Then she glanced up at the ship that they were being dragged along next to and then back to him. "You have...complete control over your crew, correct?"

He let out a genuine laugh. "Darling, would you have heard what you have about me if I didn't?"

"Right," she said quickly. "So then, would you...promise to not mention it to the crew until we get there?"

"And what is it that I'm not mentioning?"

"No, you have to promise before I tell you."

He considered for a moment, and then drew his hook in an X shape over his heart. "On my honor."

She rolled her eyes. "And how much is a pirate's honor worth?"

"I already told you I was a man of honor. You're the one who can tell if that's the truth."

They stared at each other for a few seconds, both refusing to look away. _Those damn eyes,_ he thought. _How can they even be real?_

After making her decision, she rushed out, "my parents are Snow White and Prince Charming."

Silence.

"So..." she said as he seemed to have forgotten how to blink, let alone speak, "I trust that they will be able to pay a fair price for my safe return."

Silence.

"Are you gonna need a moment by yourself or...?"

Silence.

"Seriously should I just-"

"Your parents. Are Snow White. And Prince Charming?" He said each part of the sentence with a different breath, taking time between each part seemingly to process what he has just said.

"He speaks!"

"Your parents are Snow White and Prince Charming?!" He repeated, this time louder, sounding almost crazed.

"Geez, not so loud!" she said, putting her hand over his mouth and glancing up to see if any of the crew were leaning over, listing.

"That doesn't just make you royalty, that makes you..." he sputtered, struggling to find the proper term, "_royalty_ royalty. Like, _the _royalty."

"Well put. Eloquent. Dignified."

"Emma?"

"Hook?" She said mockingly.

"How much money do you think they'll pay for you?" It wasn't said in a threatening manner. He was honestly just asking.

"...A lot."

"My Gods," he muttered. "I saved a stranded fish princess."

"Oooooh, what a nice nickname that is."

"But how did-"

"Nope!" She cut him off, raising her eyebrows in a way that almost seemed playful, but it still shut him up. "You asked about my parents. I told you. Now all you need to do is street this ship of yours to my parents' castle. It's on the water, so the crew won't question where we're going. You'll give me to them, you'll get paid, you'll leave. That's the extent of our relationship. You don't need to know anything else about me or my...situation," she finished lamely, gesturing to her charcoal-y tail. Hook realized as he looked at it that it had flecks of purple in it as well.

Something about her speech made him marvel in how...strong she was. He had met a fair amount of princesses in his days, but none of them held themselves quite like her. She somehow seemed more regal than anybody he had ever met, with the way that she held her head high, and yet she seemed relaxed, nonchalant, casual. Nothing he would've ever thought to be princess-like qualities, and yet it seemed to fit her perfectly. _Then again, maybe the whole having a tail thing is kind of throwing off her posture right now,_ he thought, shaking himself out of his trance. Almost without thinking, he said, "as the lady commands." Then he shouted from the top of his lungs, "Starkey, lift us up!" Emma noticed how much his voice changed when he was speaking to his crew.

Almost immediately, they felt a lurch as the lifeboat was hauled toward the railing of the Jolly Roger. When they reached the top, Hook shouted to the crew, "As you know, we have a guest with us! You don't need to know anything about her except that we will get paid handsomely for her return. Mr. Smee, if you would be so kind as to stay with her, I'll steer from here on out." He leaned back and whispered to Emma, "I don't think I'd trust any of the others with you alone, even if you are only half human."

She leaned over to him and said in the same conspiring tone but with an edge of sarcasm, "I'm a big girl, I think I can handle it. And besides, Captain, I don't think I trust you with me either."

_Damn, this princess can hold her own,_ he thought, before continuing talking to his crew. "We won't be stopping at this port like we were planning. He strode over to their map of the land they were in, and observed it carefully until he located the castle of Snow White and Prince Charming, perched directly on a bluff overlooking a gulf. Without reacting, so that his crew wouldn't suspect that they were heading there, he said, "it should only be about a day's journey to return our friend Emma here. Now get ready to head out to sea, mates!" He finished, and the crew immediately started preparing the vessel.

Smee was already in the lifeboat when Hook walked back over, attempting to make small talk with Emma, who was having none of heard him stammering, "oh yes, your tail really is nice color," as he approached, to which Emma responded with an eyeroll and scoff.

"Right then, you should be back home shortly," he said, suddenly feeling unsure as to why he came back over. Was it really necessary for him to inform her of that?

"Oh thank you so very much, my knight in shining armor," she said in a monotone.

Pretending like he didn't know she was being sarcastic, he bowed once more and said, "you're very welcome," then raised his head to meet her amused eyes, winked, and added, "princess."


End file.
